Unraveling the fabric of space-time with Dr. Ian O'Neill

Category Archives: Carnival of Space!

I think it goes without saying that this is a huge Carnival of Space, a celebration of the first century of space blogging as we move into the second. So long as I blog about space and science I will continue to participate in this supreme celebration of the space blogosphere.

Show 15 of Astroengine Live is going to be a first. A first for me and a first for the Carnival of Space. I’m going to do it live. I was actually contemplating doing it 99% live, just having the entries for the 96th Carnival embedded in some show notes, but no, that wouldn’t be fair, I’d have to do two versions, one online and another on the air. I suppose the best thing about preparing the jumbo 96th Carnival before Astroengine Live is that at least I’ve read all the entries, in depth and thoroughly… erm… yeah, I did that, right? Well, I did, but having glanced through the entries, I’ve forgotten the details of many of them. So I’m going to run into Wednesday’s show and hope for the best, discussing the Carnival and whatever else comes to mind.

One thing is for sure, it’s going to be a rich and varied experience! I think there were 30 entries in the end, with only a few duplicates. That is either a blessing or a curse, but then again, I’ll only find out when I’m in front of the microphone.

Get Involved!

Have any articles or stories you want to contribute? Have an opinion on anything in the world of space? Email me on astro@wprtradio.com and I’ll be sure to give it a mention. Eventually, I hope to have telephone call-ins, but for now, email will do.

So, for this week’s Carnival, as there were so many quality entries, I decided to pose a question for each entry. You can take a look at the questions below, and before you click on the link, try to guess the answer. Otherwise, just scroll down and read through the entire list. (Many of the answers may not be too obvious.) Failing that, you can listen into Astroengine Live on Wednesday April 1st for the first ever “live” Carnival of Space!

Thank you Fraser for allowing me to host this week’s Carnival, it really has grown since the last time I played host way back on the Carnival of Space #51 in April 2008! I hope to do it justice. If your entry isn’t here, be sure to drop me a comment below and I’ll get you online ASAP. Cheers!

You know when you have those unremarkable days, those periods of time you experience you know you’ll forget tomorrow? It’s either “just another” day at work, another commute, or a Sunday where you had a beer, fell asleep, only to wake up again to realise it was too late to get up so you stayed in bed till Monday? (And no, I don’t make a habit of that. I’m sure to have at least two beers.) Most days aren’t like that for me, usually I can think of one noteworthy event that sets apart one day from the next, but sometimes it’s as if Stuff Happens™ doesn’t.

It would appear the Sun is having an extended period of time where Stuff Happens™ is at a premium, so you have to make the most of when something really does happen. In this case, the Sun released a crafty CME, thinking we wouldn’t see it…Continue reading →

For the 94th week of the greatest carnival in the blogosphere, the Carnival of Space is being hosted by Lunar Librarian Ken Murphy over at the superb space blog Out of the Cradle. He has done an astounding job with this edition as there are yota-tonnes of asteroids, exoplanets, stars, galaxies, dark matter and all sorts of space exploration goodness.

For Astroengine’s part, I geeked out and threw my musings about virtual reality being physical reality and how future astronauts might be exploring a virtual representation of a physically accurate… physical Mars… or something. That didn’t make a whole lot of sense, so go to “Reality, Virtual” for more.

I have been very slack with announcing the Carnival of Space over the last couple of weeks, sorry about that. Will do better in the future. Honest. In fact, I’ve just realised we are fast approaching a landmark Carnival, the 100th edition! That’s in seven weeks, and the Carnival seems to be only getting bigger. I believe being involved in the space blogosphere is essential for any space science writer, it helps you communicate your writing as well as connect with other like-minded people. I’ve made lots of friends through the Carnival and we always welcome new bloggers/journalists/authors, anyone who has a passion for space and want to show their gushy love for the Universe.

If you are familiar with Twitter, you will have come across search tags (words with the hash character in front, i.e. “#searchterm”). So today I decided to create #physics140 where any Twitter user can submit an everyday example of physics.

Examples:

@MDBenson: Cat with wet paws jumps on handbasin for a drink, slips and falls off with a crash and a lot of spitting. Friction Fail #physics140

@astroengine: Turns out that putting ur coffee mug ontop of a subwoofer during NTrance “Set You Free” vibrates said mug onto the floor. #physics140